by Vince on February 19, 2008
Spring is a great time to revisit the look of your church’s web site and our creative team is in the process overhauling the Impact Church Website. The website is on a Joomla platform and it pretty much rules the search engines in Murrieta and Temecula with some tricks that I pull off. As we dig into it we want some feedback. So cruise on over and give it a good look and give me some criticism and encouragement. It’s still a work in progress but it is quite functional.
by Vince on December 5, 2007
So I spent the afternoon putting Adobe CS3 on my machine. Generally when I mess with some new toys I can’t be heard from for like three days. I’m sure this will be the case with CS3. After the install I have been going through each program to see what’s new from CS2. Here’s what I’m digging so far.
- Fireworks | I’m glad they kept it around. I have been a Fireworks guy since like 1998. I was worried Adobe would drop it since there is so much overlap with Photoshop. Fireworks is great for laying out templates for website and for making quick Java rollover junk. Photoshop will do the same stuff via ImageReady, it’s just nice to be able to get it done in one app.
- Premier | Basically the same, just a little slicker skin.
- Illustrator/Photoshop | The tool bar structure will take some getting used to. I have yet to mess with the new magic tricks.
- Flash | I’m stoked that it is way more integrated with Illustrator. Illustrator is my baby…we speak the same language. I always hated drawing in Flash because it was foreign to me and my Illustrator stuff didn’t always work out.
- Contribute | I have never used it before. It is basically an extension of Dreamweaver. The cool thing is that it integrates with Wordpress. I’m Actually writing this in contribute. Basically it allows me to write off line and then it connects with my blog and publishes the post.
- LiveCycle | Making really sweet interactive XML based PDFs has always been a specialty all to itself. With this program I can make some pretty trick PDFs without having to learn any new stuff. My brain is overloaded as it is.
Have You upgraded? What do you love/hate?
adobe cs3,photoshop,illustrator,design
by Vince on October 25, 2007
Last night at the creative team meeting we started brainstorming ideas for Christmas at Impact Church. What will the website look like? The auditorium? The patio? Graphics? Print? I’m actually really excited about where we are going with it. Christmas at Impact Church will be blue, white and silver. As a church plant we have to do everything on a budget, which just means we have to be extra creative.
Not only does it have to look cool, but it needs to be extremely portable and durable. Stuff gets tossed around pretty good during load in/out. We have done a good job of making sure everything we use for setup has a road case with wheels on it. Often times the case coast more than the contents.
I’m thinking fabric…lots of fabric and hitting it with lights. Almost completely blue lights…A few white ones.
For all the worship and creative people out there…what are you doing for Christmas? Lets share some ideas.
[tags]christmas, impact church, design[/tags]
by Vince on October 16, 2007
I have been tinkering with the Impact Church website the last few weeks and I am starting to like where it is going. I have abandoned the rich strong colors that most churches are going with. I wanted to see a site that was bright and alive. I have always been a fan of super clean like Mars Hill Michigan, but I feel the need to hit the soccer moms and real estate agents that populate the valley with some graphics.
Next steps will include populating the site with more and better images of what is going on around Impact, then I can start updating the content. Oh yeah, and spend about 30 hours making the site work right in Internet Explorer. If you’re still using it, do us all a favor and stop.
What I need from you is some insight for styling, content and usability.
[tags]design, websites, impact church, mars hill[/tags]